Despite the fact that drum and bass has existed for a long time, it has remained in the underground. They don’t pay big money for it, they don’t write about it in glossy magazines. Now musicians are increasingly coming out of the shadows to invite a vocalist, take up guitars and hire a rogue manager. Who would have guessed a few years ago that two young Bristol jungle players would play near-rock tunes, and the name Kosheen would be associated with Shian Edwards at all?
The brands Substens and Darren Decoder grew up in the British electronic mecca. In the early 90s, many of the now famous musicians started in Bristol. There, Marky and Darren played for a long time in underground break-beat clubs and participated in major raves. The situation changed when a cassette with the voice of Sheen Edwards fell into their hands. But neither she nor the musicians had any commercially successful projects behind them. Darren used to briefly play in a punk band, and Sheehan sang in little-known bands. For this trinity, recording a full-fledged album was an old dream. Soon the first single “Hide U” was recorded, which brought them popularity. After the success of this single, the record label confidently and without any risk for themselves took up the release of the album “Resist” with a deer on the cover.
The sudden collapse of popularity did little to change the shy and benevolent musicians. To a greater extent, this applies to Mark, who constantly laughs and jokes. The liberated and not at all feminine Shian is responsible for the image of the group. She directly answers questions and smokes men’s strong cigarettes, while Marky sips mineral water, and it is clear that he has little to say in front of the television camera. Marky is clearly thirsty – yesterday after the performance he tried Russian alcohol.
The concert, which took place very late, probably took a lot of energy from them. The large hall of the Tatami was only half full. The guests and the press gathered long before the concert. Fans and casual listeners came, knowing Kosheen from the song “Hungry”. “They don’t play drum and bass anymore. They are rockers now,” was heard from the audience. The Rockers appeared on stage to warm applause. Under the same group sang the entire concert.
Xian appeared wearing a black cap with red-dyed hair sticking out from underneath. A deaf person would think he was at a British rock band concert. All compositions were played flawlessly. The split in the hall occurred after a series of break-beat tracks. After them, the fans of “Hungry” clearly doubted, while the rest were satisfied. Perhaps only these confused rhythms distinguish Kosheen from other popular artists.
I hate all this fucking terminology. Well, tell me, what is it for?, – Marky asked me.
– So that people, when buying a ticket, know what they will hear.
What is the album for?
A lot of people didn’t hear him. In Russia, the music market is organized differently. In addition, the album turned out to be very different. By the way, why is it so different?
– We never thought about whether the next song we composed would fit with the general mood of the album. Because there was no album back then. You can talk about the album only when all the songs are finished, the number of which, again, no one knows in advance. A record recorded on someone’s orders is rarely successful.
Why is there a deer face on the cover?
And whose face should be there? My? I need to eat the same covers. Here a man comes to the store. Looks at the cover, and there is an animal. This means that he will not hear anything bad and aggressive. Psychological maneuver. The animal world is very sincere.
Marky was also very sincere all evening. He told funny stories and wondered why Jeff Mills was paid more per set than Kosheen was paid per gig. “They sold drum and bass, so don’t be surprised!” One interlocutor said.
On the second day of their stay in Moscow, a DJ set was scheduled in Zeppelin. Shian did not come to the club for obvious reasons. Darren played the first part of the set perfectly. The second part didn’t work. The stamps were asked from the DJ booth somewhere on the fifth track. He went to chill-out, where he spent the rest of the night. He was the last one to be escorted out of the club. Not one, of course.
